Hospice Hobblers Team

Hospice Hobblers are made up of people employees of Hospice North Shore



 Carol Herbert - Fundraising Development Co-ordinator

   

I have been privileged enough to have worked at Hospice for the past 11 years within the fundraising team.  I am responsible for keeping our wonderful supporters informed about  news and events at Hospice North Shore, as well as co-ordinate our annual appeal week, plus of course sign us up for the Coastal Challenge!  Every day I get to see first hand the amazing difference that Hospice makes to those on the North Shore who are living with a terminal illness and their families.

Gaynor Larsen - Funding Development Manager

I joined Hospice North Shore in October 2000 and have been in charge of the growing fundraising team ever since.  I am responsible for all the grants from Trusts and Foundations, in charge of the Bequest programme and for relationships with major donors and Clubs & Societies. .  It is a full on varied roll and as is the nature of fundraising, has many challenges as well as highs and lows.  It’s exciting to see a fundraising campaign become successful which is what I am sure will be the case with this  Coastal Challenge. Although Carol twisted my arm to join Hospice Hobblers, I was really ready to sign up as I enjoy physical challenges and this is a great opportunity for us to support each other as a team as well as raising funds for our favourite charity, which of course is Hospice North Shore!

Lynn Kenyon - Fundraising Co-ordinator

I have been part of the Hospice North Shore family for over 7 years, 5 as a volunteer and 2 as the Fundraising Co-ordinator.  My primary role is to process all donations from our wonderful supporters.  I am also responsible for the volunteers during our Appeal Week in May, Entertainment Book campaign and the very rewarding Memorial Brick Wall, just to name a few.  I have witnessed personally the work of Hospice and how they help patients and families during a very difficult time.  When Carol first told me about the Challenge, I said yes to being part of the team, what she left out was the "coastal" part - with the day looming near, but butterflies are having a field day and the challenges seems a little daunting, however not as daunting as the challenges that our patients and their families face every day.  I'm already thinking about next years challenge and maybe will do a little more than my one leg, but it's early days.  And yes I am also the Hospice Hobblers Blogger

Matthew Luxon - Family Support Social Worker

You may have heard of the term, ‘bio-psycho-social’. It is a rather simple model which encourages health workers to consider as holistically as possible the needs of our patients and their families or friends. Although the boundaries are not always quite so clear, primarily our Doctors and Nurses focus on the biological or physical needs, our Counsellors and Chaplin on the psychological, spiritual and emotional needs and as a Social Worker I’m particularly interested in the social or environmental needs people have. This may involve assisting people with issues related to housing, finances, transport, accessing resources and mediating between various services to ensure a person is receiving excellent care. I divide my time between our Inpatient Unit and visiting people in the community. I love my job and am feeling like I’ve settled into it having been at Hospice North Shore for 18 months now. Participating in the Coastal Challenge I have to admit was primarily all about me wanting to get fit! However, the spin offs have been awesome; getting to know my work colleagues better and raising money for this great organisation being the main benefits. Believe it or not I’m even starting to think about next year’s Coastal Challenge – but that might change after Saturday

Dianna Lints - Office Manager

My role at Hospice North Shore as Office Manager is a varied position which encompasses many areas throughout the organisation including IT, Telecommunications, Management of Reception/Administration and providing PA support to the CEO and Board of Trustees – just to name a few!!   I have been at HNS for just over a year and I must say I love it, there are many challenges as in most work places but nothing compared to what our patients and families have to deal with on a day to day basis.   I am so lucky with the support I receive from my colleagues which makes HNS such an awesome place to work.  Now down to the nitty gritty.......I had a weak, mad moment when Carol our Fundraising Development Co-ordinator asked for team mates for the Coastal Challenge and me being a team person with a love for fitness and the outdoors thought why not!  This also gave me an opportunity to get to know some of my colleagues which has been a great team building experience.  So watch this space – only two more sleeps to go and we will be off on our adventure whilst raising money for such an awesome workplace and charity – Hospice North Shore!

So that is us, we all have varied jobs within the organisation but all critical to ensuring that  Hospice can continue with complete care of our patients and their families free of charge.

We only have 1 more sleeps to go, the legs are being massaged, the food intake has jumped up a notch, the running gear is ready to go, and the weather watching becoming an hourly event.

Thank you all for your wonderful emails that have been coming in supporting us to keep going, give it heaps and enjoy the day.

I will be blogging after the event with photos of us coming across the line so keep a watch

A big thank you to all that have supported us on
http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/HospiceHobblers/ we are all very humbled by the wonderful encourgement of our supporters and families.